Who Am I?

Here is a course designed to help believers discover and embrace a balanced Biblical view of who you are in Christ.  It is based on Jerry Bridges’ book Who am I?  and combines his excellent teaching with art journaling exercises designed to help this truth go from something you know in your head to treasure embraced in your heart.

This eight week course can be started at any time and completed at your own pace.  It was originally filmed as a five week course and used to help train new Navigator collegiate staff but was found to be so helpful Nav20s decided to make this expanded version publicly available until April, 2015. It can be done individually but a whole new depth is added if you find a friend to share it with.

The art journaling exercises are offered as suggestions – what’s been of help to us going through this.  But feel free to come up with your own ideas for pages – indeed, even if you just have a pen or pencil and notebook paper and take a minute to quickly draw what stands out to you after reading each chapter it is amazing the impact this can have.

But don’t take my word for it!  The best way to be convinced is to give it a try!  So here’s an opportunity not only to understand and embrace on a deeper level who you are in Christ, but to learn a new tool for diving even deeper into whatever the Lord wants to teach you – to learn a new way of processing and remembering and have your life impacted in an even greater way!

To get started with this course, click on “Intro” in the Menu at the top of the website.

By now you may have noticed that rather than camping out in eight different topics, there really has been a lot of overlap and integration between each chapter.  As you look back at the different journal pages you created do any themes emerge?

Or like me praying through the ACTS acronym at night, have there been any application ideas that the Lord keeps giving you?

As this course draws to a close, I suggest you take a bit of extra time and go back and review each of your drawings as well as your applications through the past eight weeks.  You know how with weight loss programs they often have people take before and after pictures?  It really can be a great encouragement to take time to consider in what way is your life different after having gone through these past eight weeks focusing on your identity in Christ?

If you have time, creating a summary page can really help you remember the key thing the Lord has been teaching you through this!

But there’s an even greater benefit than what you get from looking backwards – and that’s how this can motivate you to keep moving forward. And help provide insight for the next step(s) the Lord has for you to take in your journey.  You see, embracing our identity in Christ is a lifetime journey.

As Jerry Bridges emphasizes, it is so key we learn to preach the gospel to ourselves daily – and remembering who we truly are in Christ is a key part of this!  So what can help you continue to remember these truths on a daily basis?

I have found passing on what I’ve learned, sharing it with someone, can be a great way to keep remembering and learning and embracing these truths on an increasingly deeper level. During the past three months I have practically been living, sleeping, eating, breathing these truths as I’ve been doing them with nearly everyone I meet with.  And considering one usually gets out of something what one puts into it, I am so excited as I keep growing in response!  Each time I read and art journal these chapters I’ve been getting something different out of them and previous lessons become even more entrenched into my thinking and my heart!  Like a diamond, there are many facets to each aspect of our identity in Christ.

So don’t let this be the end of your journey!

It’s not hard at all to duplicate what we’ve done here in your one on ones with people you meet with.  You don’t even need the videos!

When I meet with someone to do this one on one, we pray, then read through the chapter together underlining with a colored pencil what stands out to us (it usually takes about 15 minutes to read the chapter aloud together), then we go over to a table and create a page representing the key thing that stood out to us.  Finally, we share our pages and applications and pray together. This usually takes an hour and a half, though I have done it creating a quick, simple page in an hour.

So one final application could be to ask the Lord to bless you with the opportunity to pass on to someone else what we’ve been doing here.

Another idea is to go back through your art journaling pages and write up a summary for each page explaining why you created it the way you did – can this ever help to solidify and pull together what the Lord’s been teaching you.

Or the Lord may give you a completely different idea for what your next step should be!  Please do feel free to share your final thoughts in the comment section below!  And may we all continue to keep growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, embracing with all of our hearts and daily living out who we truly are in Christ for His glory!

Your sister in Christ,

deb

Welcome to week 4 of the Who Am I? Online Art journaling course.  This week we will be diving in to process and apply the truth “I am an adopted Son of God.”

Now this may sound a bit mundane as a topic, but don’t be fooled!  Out of all eight topics we’ll be examining throughout this course, this week’s message is currently having the biggest impact on my life.

The more time I spend processing the more I’m discovering the radical impact embracing this truth and it’s implications can have in my life.  Fun fact: if you watch the three videos offered this week, you may notice I have a different art journaling page featured in each one! Every single time I’ve read through this chapter and created a page on it – well, if you watch the videos you’ll see what I mean – there’s potent stuff in here!

So get ready for a life changing week as you invest time seeking to better understand and live out this incredible truth!

Note:  To access this week’s material, click on “Week 4” in the menu bar above.

The videos and content for week three of the Who Am I?  Online Art Journal course are now online and can be accessed by clicking on “Week 3” in the Menu tab above.  Remember, this course can be started at any time and should be available online for the next six months.

While there are eight different truths about our identity in Christ we’ll be examining throughout this course, this week’s truth “I am justified” is truly where it all began.  It wasn’t until I hit chapter three in Jerry Bridges’ book for the first time that it hit me I could art journal to help process these truths he was sharing… and when I did, that’s when I discovered how life changing (and peace-bringing) this can be!

This week’s video is also where the online art journal course for collegiate staff began so be forewarned the first video is a little longer since it was the original introduction and you might find a few things repeated if you’ve already seen the very first video in this series ~ but as Paul writes in both Philippians 3:1 and 2 Peter 1:12 there can be great benefit in being reminded of what we already know. :0)

May the Lord richly bless the time you invest digesting this week’s truth and as you seek to actively live it out in your daily life!

While last week’s truth, “I am a Creature” was true of every single human being, this week we will begin exploring the radical change that happens when someone enters into a personal relationship with Jesus!  Indeed the rest of Jerry Bridges’ book Who Am I? will be devoted to answering the question, “Who am I as a Christian?”  There are seven truths that he will be helping us unpack in the next seven weeks.

All are vital parts of our identity in Christ!  But please note, this first one, “I am in Christ” is the most important of them all!  Indeed the remaining six truths all rest on this foundation.

Merriam-Webster defines foundation as:

foun·da·tion

 noun \fau̇n-ˈdā-shən\

Welcome to the start of the Who Am I? Online Art Journaling Course!  Am I ever looking forward to sharing the next eight weeks with you! :0)  I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve art journaled my way through Jerry Bridges’ book but without fail each time the Lord reveals new treasures to ponder and apply.  There truly are a ton of life-changing insights contained in this little book!

Now if you’re new to art journaling, let me encourage you before you even dive into week one of this course to take a few moments and at the start of your art journal create a permission page.

It doesn’t have to be anything fancy but can it ever be a great first step in getting the most out of this course.

When I created my page I gave myself permission:

To make mistakes!

To experiment

To make a mess!

To have fun :0)

To make time for this!

To view mistakes as opportunities to try something new! (this has been the best permission of all!!! I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I’ve “discovered” a new technique when what I originally planned went south!)

To not try to create something that looks impressive

To spend money buying new materials

What can you add to this?  Another great one is to not tear out pages when you don’t like the result.  Remember it’s about the processing, not the art.  It’s not about creating something you’ll hang up on a wall or someone will clamor to buy but using the other side of your brain (talk about loving the Lord will all of your mind!) so you can further process what He’s teaching you and better live it out for His glory!

So have fun with this first assignment!  ;0)  Be sure to ask the Lord to bring to mind all the things you need to give yourself permission to do to fully benefit from this course!  And may He richly bless the time you spend with Him as you do this!